The Samsung Galaxy Camera goes wireless but can its picture quality compete with the best?

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Ubuntu for phones

The most popular Linux-based operating system, launched on January 2, is now available for phones. It works on touch and keyboard/mouse inputs.

In an increasingly wireless world, it is a surprise that so few cable-free cameras are available in the market — a camera with WiFi and 3G connectivity is a new category. While smartphones allow you to share photos, most of them only have average cameras. Samsung has brought Android Jelly Bean, the software used in Galaxy smartphones, to the Galaxy Camera. A “smart” 16-megapixel camera with 21x zoom looks pretty appealing on paper. But can it perform?

Build and design

The Samsung Galaxy Camera looks good and is well-built. Its 4.8-inch touchscreen at the back is your main input device. Controls are pretty intuitive and unlikely to pose any problems. There are few buttons and no dials on its body. The touchscreen is very responsive, but it is a little too wide. The space on the side could have been used to allow quick access to essential functions.

Though the camera has a largely plastic body, it feels pretty sturdy. The rubberised grip on the right makes it easy to hold. At 300 grams, smartphone users will find the device a tad heavy, but it is light for a camera.

Going wire-free

Android Jelly Bean is a top-notch operating system and the camera makes the best of it. Taking a picture and uploading it on Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox or any Android app is incredibly easy. This is where the Galaxy Camera shines. It comes with free 48 GB of cloud storage on Dropbox for two years. If your memory card fills up, you always have a backup on the cloud. While free Dropbox space is available on a few smartphones, it is a great feature in a camera.

Whether it is a high-end DSLR or a budget point-and-shoot camera, users have to deal with at least two cables — one for file transfer and another for charging. All major manufacturers are guilty of making proprietary connectors, which ensures that there is no standard cable for data transfer or charging. The Galaxy Camera has a single micro-USB cable for file transfer and charging. This cable is used in most Android, Windows Phones and BlackBerry devices. Most users will plug it in only for charging because the camera allows you to